The present invention relates generally to board separator apparatus for separating individual boards from groups of boards, and particularly to an improved board separator apparatus adapted to receive and separate varying sizes and numbers of boards in said groups. The boards may be cants which are sawn from a round log so they have rounded edge portions or wanes on one side of the board. Moreover, the size of the boards, for example the width dimension, as well as the number of boards in a group depend not only on the size of the log but also on how far out toward the periphery of a log a particular group of boards has been cut. Thus, the size and number of boards in a group can be subject to wide variation.
In the application of Aaron U. Jones entitled "Board Separator", Ser. No. 886,879, filed Mar. 15, 1978, now U.S. Pat. No. 4,179,266, a board separator apparatus is disclosed and claimed including a transfer box receiving a group of boards from a conveyor and operable to move said group of boards into board receiving means or separator means where the group can be moved laterally by separator arms for dropping the boards successively off the surface of an elevator member. A foreshortened pressure plate, actuated by gravity or a dash-pot type mechanism, is employed to urge the group of boards against the separator arms.
Unfortunately, both the transfer box and the board receiving or separating means have to be wide enough to receive the maximum possible thickness of a group of boards which may arrive on the input conveyor. A smaller group of boards or ones having smaller dimensions may not be properly aligned and correctly separated despite the presence of the aforementioned pressure plate suitable for a larger size and number of boards. Thus, small width boards or cants may fall into the board receiving means with a wrong angular orientation or may become jammed, and may even drop past the aforementioned pressure plate and onto the outfeed conveyor with the wrong side up. In such case, the machine may have to be stopped, or at least incorrenctly separated boards may have to be manually removed or turned for continued operation of the apparatus.
Rapid emptying of boards from the transfer box has been found to be desirable so that the transfer box may quickly return to its load position and receive a second group of boards following the first group on the input conveyor. Dropping the boards into an awaiting board receiving means rather than transferring the same downwardly on an elevator for substantially the same downward distance can enhance speed of operation, but tends to aggravate the aforementioned problem associated with alignment of the boards against the separator arms.